Chinese characters : the living history & beautiful art
Have you ever wondered how ancient people lived their life long time ago? Have you ever dreamed to travel back to the past to see the beginning of the world?
Thousands of years ago, ancient Chinese people observed everything from the heaven to the earth and drew pictures on the bone shells and pottery, like other tribes of peoples in the world. However, those pictures were gradually evovled to written characters and modern people still writie them.
Through learning Chinese characters, you may start an amazing journey to explore the living history of humans and ancient wisdom.
This summer camp targets the students who are interested in learning basic Mandarin Chinese and Chinese characters.
The students will play games, sing songs, draw pictures, listen to stories, make art crafts, write Chinese calligraphy, speak Chinese, learn to count from 1 to 100 in Chinese, make friends, and travel to the oriental places to explore more cultural fun.

The students explored in this camp:
Stories: Listen to ancient stories behind Chinese pictorial characters, the beginning of the world and interesting moral behind the Chinese idioms.
Math: Figure out the pattern to easily learn to count from 1 to 100 in Chinese.
Games: Bingo, music chair... to learn fundamental Chinese words used in the classroom and daily life.
Songs: Sing Chinese songs to learn more fun Chinese words.
Art crafts: Make origami animals, paper cutting, clay, draw., etc..
Chinese calligraphy: Write Chinese character in the bamboo brush and ink.
And much more...
Chinese newspaper reporting:
由明州台灣線上圖書館主辦,僑委會、明州台灣同鄉會贊助的2013年漢字藝術夏令營,為期五個半天,針對幼稚園到三年級的美國小朋友,設計啟發學習正體漢字與體驗中華文化的活動,獲得美國家長熱烈迴響。
由明州台灣線上圖書館主辦,僑委會、明州台灣同鄉會贊助的2013年漢字藝術夏令營,為期五個半天,針對幼稚園到三年級的美國小朋友,設計啟發學習正體漢字與體驗中華文化的活動,獲得美國家長熱烈迴響。
館長蔡玉茂表示,漢字的學習一開始不需強調如何寫,而可以用趣味的遊戲讓孩子學會認字,並藉由組合不同的漢字單元來學習另一個新字。例如孩子學了日、月兩個字,可以組合成「明」。連接不同漢字的詞語也很有趣,例如「大火」與「火大」可以衍生出引人發噱的聯想。
漢字本身具有圖形化的特徵,因此在營會中藉由書法、剪紙等藝術創作,讓孩子欣賞漢字之美。美國孩子特別對毛筆的運用感到好奇有趣,每個人寫出來的書法漢字皆富有獨特的藝術性。另外透過趣味的團體遊戲與活動,讓孩子在玩耍中輕鬆記住漢字與詞語。
由於甲骨文表達了古人對自然的觀察與創作文字的智慧,因此設計對應甲骨文與漢字的遊戲,讓孩子看到漢字有如活化石,保留了千年之久的歷史傳承。用漢字學數學也是此次夏令營的重點,漢字算數可以表達加法與乘法的概念,喜歡數學的孩子更被啟發願意學寫數字的漢字。另外蔡玉茂為此次夏令營設計漢字網路遊戲,讓學生依照自己的進度與程度,在家練習漢字。
為配合即將到來的中秋節,夏令營加入文化活動,讓學生做月餅、吃月餅、欣賞台灣茶藝:認識台灣的茶山、茶樹、手工採茶與泡茶、品茶的方法。接著老師分享中秋節「后羿與嫦娥」的傳奇故事,讓孩子隨著劇情加入表演,家長們看了都覺得相當有趣。
多位美國家長表示,他們原本對學習中文感到陌生與恐懼,但看到孩子每天期待來到營會中學習中文,也希望自己將來能參加類似的活動。家長們對夏令營老師的愛心與教學,深表感謝,使他們的孩子有機會接觸到異國文化。
蔡玉茂說台灣線上圖書館過去三年舉辦過三次漢字推廣活動,今年能有一週的時間舉辦漢字夏令營,讓美國學生有更多機會體驗漢字趣味,相當有意義。